The Invisible Line: A Secret History of Race in America

One of the most persistent of the myths that Americans tell themselves about race is that the line between black and white is a matter of genetics rather than choice. Law professor and historian Daniel Sharfstein, with his book The Invisible Line, delved into the dramatic stories of three black families who responded to times of great racial upheaval by seizing opportunities to reinvent themselves as white. Sharfstein found an antebellum Southern family that – after covertly crossing the line from black to white – became wealthy sugar planters, slaveholders, and ardent Confederates.

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